Post Top Ad

2/09/2018

The 2018 Winter Olympics will
have the greatest African representation ever. But it’s the Nigerian women who
will compete in the bobsleigh and skeleton event who are among the most
remarkable. By ANTOINETTE MULLER.

The 2018 Winter Olympics will
begin in Pyeongchang, South Korea on Friday and while South Africa has sent a
lone competitor – alpine skier Connor Wilson – the Games will have a broad
African representation.

In fact, the Games will feature
the most African countries at a Winter Olympics. Eight countries from the
continent – Kenya, Morocco, Ghana, Madagascar, South Africa, Togo, Eritrea and
Nigeria – will compete at this year’s event with 13 athletes (a record since
1994) all vying to become the first African to win a medal.

It is a monumental effort
considering the challenges the athletes face to compete.

Beyond the usual –
maladministration, lack of funding and you know, the weather – there’s the
added complexity that in many countries, the federations that govern winter
sports simply do not exist.

When Senegal's Lamine Guèye became
the first black African athlete to compete in the games back in 1984, he had to
ask for the help from the International Ski Federation to set up the sport's
federation. That has been a recurring theme and a similar story for the women
who are likely to be the stars of this year’s African show.

US-based trio Seun Adigun, Akuoma
Omeoga and Ngozi Onwumere will make up Nigeria’s bobsleigh team at the Games,
while Simidele Adeagbo will compete in the women’s skeleton.

It’s the first time the country
will take part at the competition, and added to their challenge of actually
getting into a bobsleigh, they also had to set up the federation from scratch.

It will be a historic moment when
the women debut, but elite-level competition isn't foreign to all of them.
Onwumere is an All-Africa Games medallist, having won silver in the 200m sprint
in Brazzaville 2015 and gold in the 4x100m relay.

But the two sports are worlds
apart and the journey to get here has been nothing short of remarkable. It
started off with a wooden sled in Houston -- built by driver Adigun herself
from scrap metal – and breaking three helmets in qualifying. Their story has
captured wide media attention, including a visit to the Ellen DeGeneres Show,
which was all sorts of wonderful.

“Everybody is going absolutely
nuts. The crazy thing about it is most people don’t really understand what
bobsleigh is but they don’t care. They just know the flag is raising high, and
they are excited about it,” Adigun told DeGeneres when asked about the reaction
in Nigeria.

That all four women were born in
the United States doesn’t matter. Like many expats in the African diaspora,
they all understand the broader vision and the impact they can have on the
lives of others.

“After realising that my participation
as a brake man on the United States women’s bobsleigh team had grown to be far
larger than me, I knew this was something I had to do. I noticed my ability to
potentially empower and positively influence millions of people resided in my
decision to give back to the country of Nigeria,” Adigun said in an interview
with sheleadsafrica.org.

And Adigun was right. With the
widespread attention their ambition of becoming Africa's first-ever bobsleigh
team got, Adeagbo, who will become the continent’s first ever skeleton racer at
the 2018 Winter Olympics, had her interest piqued.

Adeagbo, who was born the in the
States to Nigerian parents but living in Johannesburg where she worked as
running brand manager for Nike, got in touch with the trio via social media
after reading about their story.

Adeagbo figured bobsleigh is a
four-person sport and she wanted in, only to be told it's only men who race in
fours (the women race in twos). Her dreams weren’t completely dashed. A seed
was planted and she kept pondering.

In July 2017, she saw a call for
try-outs for the Nigerian Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation in the most
unlikeliest of places – Houston, Texas.

She arrived in Texas on the
morning of trials and flew back to South Africa on the same day. Two weeks later,
she was invited to a camp in Canada. And now, Adeagbo – like the rest of her
Nigerian team mates – is on the verge of making history and leaving a legacy
they hope will continue to inspire others to break barriers. DM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Post Top Ad

Author Details

Soul 2 Soul Mates Blog is a blogger resources site is a provider of high quality news with premium looking layout and robust design. The main mission of Soul 2 Soul Mates Blog is to provide the best quality news which are professionally designed to deliver best result to the world.